Hindus have been
blessed with a continuous, unbroken chain of women Saints[1],
Yoginis, Nuns[2],
Priestesses[3],
Ascetics[4]
and Seers[5]
who roam all over the world to this day to preach the eternal message of
our Dharma.

Meera, Akka Mahadevi,
Lalleshvari, Andal and other saintly women of medieval India
are considered some of the foremost Hindu Sages. Their writings are
treated as scripture, and chanted with great regard to this day.

Meerabai (16th
century) was a Rajput Princess of Mewar who decided in her childhood that
her husband was Lord Krishna. She was married to a Rajput prince, but
forsaking all formal ties, she traveled between various religious centers
associated with Lord Krishna. Her Hindi bhajans (devotional songs)
in praise of Rama and Krishna
are very popular even today. Meerabai’s soul merged with that of Lord
Krishna in Dwaraka when she was 67 years old. Andal-Goda’s songs are
recited daily in Shri Vaishnava Hindu liturgy in temples as well as in
homes, in India
as well as outside India. Her icon is frequently placed alongside that of
Lord Vishnu and Devi Lakshmi in temples.[6]

Lalleshvari (14th
century CE) is considered the greatest saint poet of Kashmir.
Her devotional verses highlight the divinity within our own selves, and
exhort us to love the Shiva who dwells in our heart. Lalleshvari walked
out of a traumatic marriage and roamed the Kashmir valley singing
her mystical songs, demonstrating Yogic feats while lost in the bliss of
Bhagavan Shiva. Her spellbinding songs are recited even
today.

Akka Mahadevi (12th
century) lived and preached in Karnataka. Though married, she severed her
worldly bonds and instead sought to merge in Shiva. She roamed the
countryside of that region singing of Lord Shiva, and ultimately is said
to have merged in him. Akka joined the Virashaiva community after her
meeting with Saint Basavacharya and wrote 350 exquisite spiritual
compositions. Akka and Lalleshvari defied the social norms by eschewing
garments for they had surrendered their entire being to their deity and
had no use for social norms. A late twentieth century woman ascetic named
Mate Mahadevi drew her own inspiration from the ideal set by Akka Mahadevi.

The Shaiva Siddhanta
tradition has been blessed with several women saints such as Kaaraikkaal
Ammaiyaar, Thilakavathiyaar, Mangaiyarkkarachiyaar, Paravaiyaar,
Changiliyaar, Chembiyan Madheeviyaar, Auvaiyaar etc. Some of them led a
saintly life dedicating their lives to spiritual pursuits. The others lead
a family life while spreading of spiritual teachings of Shaivism in Tamil
speaking areas.[7]
Likewise, the Sant tradition of Maharashtra
has several feminine voices from Muktabai (13th century CE) the
sister of Sant Jnaneshvara, to Bahina Bai. Janabai (1298-1350) also wrote
of abandoning social norms and offering herself to the service of God. The
hagiographies of many of these women Sants occur in Mahipati’s
Bhaktavijaya. Most women saints of this tradition were in fact housewives.
Similar examples may be given from many other Hindu spiritual traditions
such as Gaudiya Vedanta of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

In more recent times,
Shree Shree Ma Anandamoyi (1896-1982), born in what is now Bangladesh[8],
was a Hindu woman mystic whose own husband became her devotee, and who was
held in great reverence even by Mahatma Gandhi. She traveled far and wide,
preaching compassion and spirituality, and was instrumental in the setting
up of many hospitals and other charitable institutions.

In our times, Mata
Amritanandamayi and Mata Nirmala Devi as Hindu women Gurus are well known
today in the international spiritual circuit as teachers of Divine Love
and of Yoga respectively.

Ammachi, as Mata
Amritanandamayi is lovingly called by followers, was born in a humble
Hindu harijan family of Kerala. From her childhood she was lost in Divine
Love for God. Today, she travels all over the world preaching love for God
and compassion for human beings. She is well known for embracing all the
visitors who come to see her with patience and compassion, and with an
eternal beatific smile that leaves a profound spiritual effect on them.

Mata Nirmala Devi,
born to a Christian priest, converted to Hinduism and discovered a simpler
form of Yoga that she teaches to her devotees spread all over the world.
Many other Hindu women Gurus preach in the West in our times, including Ma
Yoga Shakti, Shri Ma, Anandi Ma and so on.[9]

Foreign women who
adopted Hindu spirituality also made a significant contribution to our
Dharma and society. For instance, Sister Nivedita[10]
(Margaret Noble) born in 1867 in Northern Ireland, met Swami Vivekananda
in London in 1895 and became his disciple. She came to India in 1898. In
India she engaged herself in running a school for girls and young women.
After Swamiji's death she involved herself actively in the Indian Freedom
Movement. She wrote several books that present different aspects of
Hinduism and Buddhism in a very lucid manner for the lay readership. She
died in 1911.

Women have played an
important role in other sacred traditions that have organic links to Hindu
Dharma. For instance, one out of the twenty-four Tirthankaras (founding
spiritual teachers) of the Jains was a woman. The heroine of a Tamil Jain
didactic epic is a Jain nun named Neelakeshi. Guru Amar Das, the 3rd
Sikh Guru, entrusted two of the 26 regions marked out for his missionary
activity to women spiritual leaders. Princess Bhrikuti, the daughter of
Nepalese Licchivi King Amshu Varma (7th century CE) married the
Tibetan King Tsrong-tsong Gompo and influenced her husband to convert to
Buddhism. She is also credited with the construction of several prominent
places of Tibetan Buddhism such as Potala and Jokhang, as well as Buddhist
shrines in
Bhutan. Thus, she played a pivotal role in leading Tibetans to Buddhism
and is therefore worshipped as a manifestation of the Tibetan deity Tara.[11]

Often, when male
saints have died, their widowed wives or women disciples have assumed the
spiritual leadership of his followers. As an example we may cite ‘The
Mother’, who was the spiritual companion or the first disciple of Shri
Aurobindo, one of the most influential Hindu Sage of our times. She had
visions about him even before she met him and became
Self-realized/God-realized following the Integral Yoga he was
developing/teaching).[12]
Originally from France,
she followed him to India, where she spent the rest of her life providing
spiritual leadership to Shri Aurobindo’s disciples.

Another example is
that of Sharada Devi (b. 1853), the wife of Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa,
a Hindu Saint who lived in the 19th century. After Ramakrishna
Paramahamsa passed away in 1886, she continued to guide her husband’s
followers till her own death in 1920. Portraits of the two are worshipped
together by followers of this Hindu saint even today.

It would be a fair
statement to make that of all the organized global religions in the world
today, women perhaps have the most visible and prominent presence in Hindu
Dharma. Feminine spirituality is not something that needs to be grafted
onto Hindu Dharma. It has always been a part of the core of our faith.

7.0 Women Scholars and
Poetesses:

We have already cited
above several instances of Vedic women seers, ritual teachers, spiritual
teachers and so on. In this section, we shall mention some examples of
women who were scholars from post-Vedic literature. In the Mahabharata[13],
one reads of a profoundly spiritual nun Sulabha who studied under several
teachers and has a philosophical debate with the philosopher King Janaka.
Numerous texts of Sanskrit grammar indicate the existence of respected
women teachers of grammar[14].
Commenting on the authoritative grammar text Ashtadhyayi 3.3.21 of Panini
(~400 BCE), Patanjali (~150 BCE) says that women commence their education
after undergoing the sacred thread ceremony. He then derives the feminine
forms of words denoting teachers, professors and so on. Likewise,
commenting on Ashtadhyayi 4.1.14, Patanjali mentions that ladies studied
the ancient grammar of Apisali and also the Mimamsa text of Kashkritsna.

In the
Uttararamacharita 2.3 of Bhavabhuti (~8th cent. CE), it is
mentioned that Atreyi goes from the hermitage of Sage Valmiki to southern
India India to learn Vedas and Vedanta philosophy etc. In Kaadambari, the
exemplary text on poetics authored by Dandin (~8th centy. CE),
a lady named Mahaashveta is described as adorned with a white sacred
thread that shone like pure moonlight.

Numerous ancient Hindu
temples (such as the Lingaraja temple in Orissa or the Khajuraho temple in
Madhya Pradesh) show women as teachers (with male as well as female
students) and painters etc.

Ubhaya Bharati, the
wife of ritualism scholar Mandana Mishra, presided as a judge in a debate
between her husband and the spiritual philosopher Adi Shankaracharya.
After the latter won, she then challenged Adi Shankaracharya (8th
century CE) to a debate. The hagiography Shankaradigvijaya of Madhava
states that she knew the Vedas, the six Vedangas (perquisite sciences for
studying Vedas), poetics and several other branches of learning. When she
debated with Shankaracharya, the audience was dumbfounded with the
erudition and skill with which she marshaled Vedic citations, logical
arguments and profound thoughts[15].

Recently[16],
a commentary on Tiruvaayamoli of Shudra saint Nammalvar authored by a
woman named Tirukkoneri Dasyai (15th century) has been
discovered. The commentary is an exquisite work and shows familiarity with
Vedic texts, particularly those of Taittiriya Yajurveda. It may be noted
that the Tiruvaayamoli is accorded the status of Samaveda in the Shri
Vaishnava community, and is called ‘Dravida Veda’ or the Tamil Veda.

By and large however,
it appears that (as with all religious traditions), women were not
initiated into rigorous Vedic or religious study to the same extent as
men. The noted social reformer Swami Dayanand Sarasvati cited Vedic
testimony to argue that women are entitled to Vedic study. He founded the
Arya Samaj in 1875, and its members soon established colleges for teaching
Hindu scriptures to girls. Through the efforts of Lala Devraj several
decades ago, women scholars were finally able to recite the Vedas and
perform Vedic sacrifices publicly after several centuries.

What was a rarity in
recent centuries is now becoming an increasingly common spectacle. For
instance, in 1931, Upasani Baba founded the Kanya Kumari Sthan in Sakori (Ahmednagar
district, India) where women are taught Vedas and the performance of seven
sacred Vedic sacrifices every year.

Influenced by this
endeavor, another institution named Udyan Mangal Karyaalaya was started in
the city of
Pune wherein
women of all castes and vocations are learning to chant the Vedas and
become priests.[17]
There are now thousands of Hindu women priests both within India and outside
India (including the United States) and are in great demand because they
are often considered more sincere, learned and pious then male priests.

Coming to the modern
academic study of religion, several Hindu women have distinguished
themselves as scholars. The first non Judeo-Christian President of the
American Academy of Religions (AAR) has been a Hindu woman Professor
Vasudha Narayanan[18].

Besides writing Vedic
and other Hindu religious poetry as noted above, many women also excelled
as authors of secular poetry. Several authors of poetry in the Sangam
literature in Tamil are women. The Sanskrit epic ‘Madhuraavijaya’ is
attributed to Gangadevi (14th cent. CE). The epic celebrates
the Hindu re-conquest of an area in southern India from invading Muslims
who had indulged in large-scale massacres, cow-slaughter, desecration of
temples and molestation of women. Many of the poems attributed to the
famous medieval Bengali poet Chandidas were actually written by his wife.

8.0 Swayamsiddhā[19]:
The many achievements and talents of Hindu Women:

Hindu society has
produced numerous women who were able Rulers, Warriors, Poetesses,
scholars, mathematicians, freedom fighters, musicians, artists and so on.

8.1 Musicians and
Dancers:
Hindu music and dance has always had a very strong connection with women.
Devi Sarasvati is the patron deity of all art, music, literature, drama
and dance and her blessings are invoked whenever artists commence their
work or performance. Most of the classical dance forms of Hindus such as
Balinese (in
Indonesia),
Kuchipudi, Odissi, Bharatnatyam, Kathak and Garba are dominated by women
performers today. Even in dance forms where women do not participate,
their status is quite exalted. For instance, Kathakali dance of Kerala is
traditionally performed by men who wear masks of different colors to
denote different categories of persons. Interestingly, the masks for women
as well as for all divine characters are painted white in order to
indicate their holy, pure and exalted status.

Many traditional folk
dance forms such as Pandavani of Chhattisgarh are being promoted by women
such as Teejanbai.

Lata Mangeshkar,
a devoted Hindu lady, is considered one of the foremost lady singers in
Indian film industry. She is credited with singing hundreds of devotional
Hindu songs in several Indian and non-Indian languages. She spends a
considerable portion of her income on charitable causes such as repairs of
temples and is presently engaged in the construction of a hospital in the
memory of her father in the city of Pune.

M S Subhalakshmi,
who passed away recently, was likewise the greatest singer of the
classical Hindu Carnatic Music style. For her soul stirring renderings of
devotional songs from Hindu tradition, she has been honored by numerous
prominent religious leaders. She played the role of Saint Meerabai in a
celebrated Hindi movie on the life of the saint. A ‘low-caste’ Hindu, she
has instituted scholarships for poor Brahmin boys engaged in the oral
preservation of Vedic texts in southern India.

Likewise, women such
as Kishori Amonkar, Gangubai Hangal and so on are some of the greatest
performers of other traditional vocal music styles such as classical
Hindustani.

Numerous traditional
art-forms in
Gujarat, Orissa
and other parts of India are still
sustained by the efforts of women of these regions.

8.2 Dharmic Queens:
Queen Kulaprabhavati of the Hindu Khmer Kingdom
(in Kampuchea) was a pious Vaishnava queen who in the fifth century
(c.475) made many donations to a Vaishnava ashrama. And there were several
other Hindu queens--Kambujarajalakshmi, Jayadevi in that dynasty who
excelled in charitable and social welfare works.

In Indonesia,
Gunapriya Dharmapatni (late 10th cent. CE), the
great-granddaughter of the Hindu King of eastern Java, married the
Balinese Hindu prince Udayana and was instrumental in introducing Javanese
traditions such as Tantric Hinduism into Bali. She was so influential that
her name appears before that of Udayana in Balinese inscriptions. Goa
Gajah, the Elephant Cave, near Bedulu, not far from Ubud, was built around
this time, as a rock hermitage for Shaivite priests.

Dozens of inscriptions
from various parts of the Indian subcontinent also attest to pious Hindu
queens and lady officials making endowments to temples, colleges,
monasteries etc. These examples are too numerous to list here and only a
few illustrations should suffice. An inscription in Afasarh states that
the mother Shrimati Devi of King Adityasen established a religious school,
whereas his wife Kona Devi had a pond dug up for the welfare of masses.
From the Bheraghat inscription, it is apparent that Queen Alhanadevi, wife
of a Kalachuri ruler, got a Shiva temple constructed. She also got a
school and a garden constructed in the vicinity. The mosque at Bayana in
Rajasthan occupies the site of a demolished Vishnu temple, which had been
constructed by the daughter Chitralekha of King Saurasena. Likewise, the
wife of King Tejpal repaired the sacred icons that were demolished or
desecrated by invading Turk Muslims and also induced a Chauhan feudatory
of her husband to make a donation for religious causes.[20]

Queen Ahalyabai Holkar
(1725-1795) of the princely state of Indore in central
India is often held as an example of an ideal Hindu sovereign. She
inherited her kingdom from her father in law since her husband and her son
were already dead. Ahalyabai ruled her kingdom with great ability,
benevolence and compassion for 30 years. Numerous trusts and institutions
founded in her memory by both her descendants as well as by others attest
to her exalted status in the Indian society.

She got numerous
temples and other pilgrim sites constructed or repaired all over India even though they
were outside her kingdom. Her reign saw increase in overall prosperity of
the people, and she also helped widows get their rightful inheritance from
their husband’s wealth.

Rani Rashmoni Devi
(1793-1861) was the widow of a rich landowner (Zamindar) and managed his
estate very efficiently after his death. Once when the Rani was on her way
to a pilgrimage to Varanasi, Goddess Kali appeared to her in a dream and
asked the Rani to return to Kolkata and construct a temple in that town.
Thus was built the famous Dakshineshvar temple (later associated with
Saint Ramakrishna Paramahamsa).

She also repaired the
sacred steps (‘ghats’) on the banks of the Bhagarathi river (distributary
of Ganga
flowing past Kolkata) and made handsome endowments to the Hindu College (now
called The Presidency College) and the Imperial Library (now called The
National Library) in Kolkata.[21]
She also had a road constructed from the Subarnarekha river (that flows
past the town of Jamshedpur)
to the Hindu pilgrim center of Puri for the welfare of pilgrims.

Tarabai[22]:
After Rajaram, Shivaji's brother, died - his wife took over and continued
the Maratha struggle. Under her leadership the capital was shifted to what
is now known as Kolhapur. The struggle continued till Sambhaji's son,
Shahu was brought back from the Mughals.

8.3 Warriors, Warrior Queens
and Freedom Fighters:
Women warriors are mentioned in the Vedic texts. Vispala, the wife of
chief Khela was an aggressive warrior who lost her leg in a battle. The
Ashvins, celestial physicians, gave her a metal prosthesis as a
replacement for her lost leg.[23]
Mudgalani drove the chariot of her husband in a battle.[24]
In the Mahabharata, Chitraangada, the wife of Arjuna, was an accomplished
warrior in her own right.[25]
Carvings and statues in several ancient Hindu temples depict women
warriors. As examples, one may cite the Khajuraho temples in Chattisgarh,
or the remnants of the Vishvanath Temple
embedded in Aurangzeb’s mosque in Varanasi. When Lord Rama was asked to
proceed on fourteen years of banishment from his kingdom, it was proposed
that his wife, Devi Sita, could rule as the queen in his absence.[26]

Queen Rudramba:
She was the only daughter of the 6th King of the Kakatiya Dynasty of
Andhra Pradesh (13th century CE) and succeeded her father to
his throne. Her father got her educated fully in the affairs of the state
craft. She made a mark of bravery while accompanying her father in the
latter's victory tours. Thinking her to be a weak woman, the feudal lords
and the area commanders revolted and neighboring rulers also found an
occasion to grab her territory. But, Rudramamba defeated them all. She
married the Chalukya king Virabhadra and they jointly ruled over the
Kakatiya kingdom very effectively for many decades.

The last Hindu ruler
of Kashmir
was a woman Kota Rani, who was the widow of Hindu king
Uddyana Deo. She played a crucial role in warding off the Tartar invasion
of Kashmir in
the early 14th century CE but was finally deposed by Shahmir in
1341 CE. Shahmir started the long lasting Islamic rule in the region that,
with traumatic consequences on the Hindu population of the region.
Kalhana’s Rajatarangini mentions several other valiant Queens in
pre-Muslim Kashmir.

When the ruler Dalpat
Rai of Gondwana died in 1548, Rani Durgavati became the
regent Queen on behalf of her infant son Bir Narayan and ruled her kingdom
ably for 16 years. The Moghul Emperor Akbar invaded her kingdom in 1564.
She fought bravely and when defeat was imminent, she chose to commit
suicide by plunging a dagger into herself. She may have lost her life in
the battlefield but Akbar could not subjugate her loyal subjects
completely.

The legendary
Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi fought bravely against British invaders
in 1857 and died on the battlefield. She is considered the Joan of Arc of
India and is glorified in several Hindi ballads and poems. The words ‘Khoob
ladi mardaani, woh to Jhansi wali Rani thi’ from a poem in her honor
written by the poetess Subhadra Kumari Chauhan are known to every
school-going student in the Hindi speaking areas of northern India. An
associate of hers named Jalkari Bai also distinguished
herself in the war of 1857. She was credited with having killed a tiger
herself in her teenage years, and resembled Rani Lakshmibai very closely.
When Lakshmibai’s fort was about to fall to the British troops, Jalkari
Bai dressed up as Rani Lakshmibai (allowing the latter to escape) and
defended the fort for a long time before surrendering. Impressed by her
bravery, the British set her free.

Rani Chennamma of
Kittur[27]
(1778-1829) received training in horse riding , sword fighting and archery
in her young age. She was married to Raja Mullasarja of Kittur, a princely
state in Belgaum in Karnataka. Her husband died in 1816. Her only son died
in 1824. Chennamma adopted Shivalingappa as her son and made him heir to
the throne. The British did not accept this and ordered the expulsion of
Shivalingappa. The Rani defied the order. A great battle ensued. The Rani
fought the British with great courage and skill. She could not, however,
hold out for long. She was taken captive and lodged in Bailhongal Fort
where she died in early 1829.

Rani Avantibai[28]:
When Vikramaditya Singh, the ruler of Ramgarh State
died leaving behind his wife Avantibai and no heir to the throne, the
British put the state under court administration. Avantibai vowed to win
back her land from the British. She raised an army of four thousand men
and led it herself against the British in 1857. A fierce battle ensured
and Avantibai fought most valiantly but could not hold out for long
against the superior strength of the British army. When her defeat become
imminent she killed herself with her own sword and became a martyr in
March 1858.

Several Hindu women
were also at the forefront of the Indian freedom struggle in early 20th
century. Of them, the most notable was Sarojini Naidu, often called the
‘Nightingale of India’ because of her excellent poetry.

In the Sikh tradition
too, women warriors and military generals played a crucial role in their
battles against Afghan and Pathan Muslim oppressors.

Women also played the
role of spies. Around 300 BC, Emperor Chandragupta Maurya used a woman spy
to assassinate his rival King Parvataka.

Several Hindu women
avenged the dishonor to our Dharma and our country by employing clever
strategy, if not arms. In the year 712, the Arab invader Muhammad bin
Qasim invaded the outlying Indian province of Sindh (now in Pakistan),
killed its last Hindu ruler Raja Dahir, and sent Dahir’s daughters to
Baghdad as a gift to the Caliph. The daughters told the Caliph that Qasim
had already ravished them before sending them as a gift to him. Infuriated
by this apparent insult, the Caliph had Qasim put to death, only to learn
that the Princesses of Sindh had lied to him to avenge their father’s
death. The two Princesses were tortured to death.

In the early 14th
century, Ulugh Khan, a Muslim military general invaded the Vaishnava holy
temple town of
Shrirangam. He massacred several monks, desecrated the temple and looted
its treasury. The Muslim army occupied the temple precincts and put and an
end to Hindu worship. A temple courtesan, who fascinated the invading
general, prevailed upon him not to destroy the temple altogether, and
restrict his vandalism to the destruction of a few cornices. The Brahmins
in the surrounding areas tried to perform the sacred rituals whenever they
could, but were harassed by the occupying Muslim forces constantly. Unable
to bear the harassment of the devotees by the Muslims, she enticed the
Muslim chief, took him up a temple tower in the east, and in the pretext
of showing him a famous icon from there, she pushed him down and killed
him. Scared that she will be tortured by the Muslims as a result of her
deed, she hurled herself also down and died. According to tradition, to
honor her memory, the funeral pyres of temple courtesans were lit by fire
brought from the temple kitchen.[29]

To finance the defense
of their motherland from the invasions of the Turk Muslim ruler Mahmud
Ghaznavi, Hindu women in what is now Pakistan willingly
donated all their jewellery.

It is relevant here to
recall some rules of Hindu warfare that are enjoined in texts such as
Manusmriti and Mahabharata. Women in general were considered inviolable,
and were generally exempt from capital punishment. They could not be
captured for use as concubines, and could not be assaulted sexually by
soldiers.

Looking at the past
achievements of Hindu women, it is not surprising that the largest Hindu
country namely
India has had a Hindu woman as its Prime Minister for 17 long years, and
that women have presided over state governments in the largest[30]
states of India.
It may be noted that the Council and the Assembly are called the ‘two
daughters of God’ in Hindu texts.[31]

[11]
It should be pointed out that Buddhism and Hinduism are fused together
in Nepal to this day, and that Tibetan Buddhism incorporates elements
of Hinduism to a very great extent.

[12]
Likewise, the vast spiritual flock of the influential Swami Muktananda
is today guided by his lady disciple Gurumayi Chidvilasananda.

[13]
Mahabharata XII.320. All citations from Mahabharata in this article
are based on the vulgate text that accompanies the traditional
‘Bharatadeepa’ commentary by Nilakantha (Chitrashala edn. published
from Pune)

[30]
Both in terms of population (Uttar Pradesh, governed by Chief Minister
Mayavati) and area (Madhya Pradesh, governed by Chief Minister Uma
Bharati, who has been a dynamic Hindu nun since her childhood). Note
that the Meghawati Sukarnoputri, the former President of Muslim
dominated Indonesia was the daughter of a secular Muslim father and a
Hindu mother from Bali. Her name itself is Sanskrit derived. Indonesia
still retains a lot of its Hindu cultural heritage despite conversion
of most of its people to Islam. The erstwhile royal family of Korea
traces its lineage to a Hindu princess from India who married a Korean
chief.

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